FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A new vaccination site opened in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday to replace a previous site, as local leaders plead for more doses.
The new COVID-19 vaccination site at Snyder Park, 3299 SW 4th Ave., is now the second in the city.
Snyder Park is replacing Holiday Park as a vaccination site.
“It’s a larger location, can vaccinate more people and [has] room to expand as supply increases,” said Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis. “We have a much better traffic flow.”
Trantalis said Florida residents 65 and older and frontline care workers can request an appointment through the health department.
He said the site is able to conduct 500 vaccinations a day, and they want to do more, but it all depends on supply.
“We’re all ready, we’re set to go, we just need more product,” said Trantalis.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke on the supply shortage once again in Vero Beach on Tuesday.
“We’re not going to divert second doses away from seniors,” he said. “Seniors want it, we’re going to do it so if the implication is, ‘You should be giving those doses away to other people,’ that’s not the way the FDA has prescribed it.”
His response is to press secretary Jen Psaki who pushed back against DeSantis’ comments criticizing the federal government, saying Florida has only administered about half of the vaccines it has been given.
“They have only distributed about 50% of the vaccines that they have been given,” she said. “Clearly they have a good deal of the vaccine.”
DeSantis said the state has the ability to administer more vaccines, but more first doses are needed in Florida.
“If they sent 500,000 first doses instead of 266, I can double the drive-thru sites, I can give more to hospitals, I can expand Publix,” he said.
As vaccinations continue in the City of Miami, the mayor once again extended the state of emergency.
On a national level, Dr. Anthony Fauci addressed a timeline of what he called, ‘open season,’ or the time when anyone who wants a vaccine can get one.
“I’ve been saying that probably by the end of the summer you can get everybody vaccinated, but the availability for people in any category will likely be by April,” Fauci said.
For more information about making an appointment at Miami-Dade vaccination sites, click here. For sites in Broward, click here.
Anyone with questions and concerns about the coronavirus can call the Florida Department of Health’s 24-hour hotline at 1-866-779-6121.
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